Using Your Finances To Meet Your Goals

Hello great big world! My name is Linda. And this is my finance blog. Sounds exciting, huh?

Actually, to me it is pretty exciting, although if you had talked to me a few years ago I would’ve been pretty clueless about almost anything related to finance. I started out studying psychology, earned a Bachelor of Science from Penn State, and merrily went off to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. Unfortunately, three years into the program I realized I didn’t enjoy psychology any more, and I didn’t want to work in academia. After a lot of thought, I stepped back and quit the program.

While I struggled to figure out what exactly I wanted to do with my life, I took a job in my church’s bookkeeping department. This in turn led to an opportunity to take a financial planning course through Crown Ministries.

For the first time, I understood that how I managed the small amount of money I have now impacts what I can do years down the road. I developed my budget, set some goals, and started reading every book my local library had about budgeting, investing, and economics. I couldn’t get enough!

I started having conversations with friends about financial management, and to my surprise I was able to help them figure out their own budgets and financial plan. I liked counseling people so much I took a coaching class, again through Crown Ministries. I even ended up leading a small study.

It eventually occurred to me that I’d enjoy doing this for a living. As soon as I’ve saved up enough, I plan to pursue CFP certification. I hope to eventually counsel people on the best way to meet their long term goals.

If you’ve read this far, you probably realized I’m a Christian. Heck, the title of this blog comes from a Biblical parable! My faith will play into what I write about, in that I believe in God and I don’t believe that the final goal is to horde as much wealth as possible. For me, at least, that would lead to a very unsatisfying life. What I get, I want also to give, and that worldview will, I’m sure, pop up every so often. Just tryin’ to prepare you, is all!

I hope you keep reading, and I hope what you read helps you in some way, big or small.